THE GUARDIAN OF DEVOTION (2)

(3) Universal Conception of Guru

(By Sripad Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj)

Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, the post graduate study for Gaudiya Vaishnavas, begins with the invocation Vande gurun, “I offer my respectful obeisances unto the spiritual masters.” Therein, Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami reveals that the fully blossoming spiritual conception comes to embrace a plurality of gurus.

The scriptures in general present a very broad and universal conception of Sri Guru, laying stress on the spiritual substance—that divine current of nectar that flows down to this plane from the highest domain through the inspiration that is found in the heart of a real Vaishnava. To deny divine revelation through another agent in the name of being chaste to one’s guru can be offensive and even suicidal.

As guru is the functioning principle of Divinity revealing Himself in this world; according to our different stages of realizations, he may appear in different forms. The chastity of a disciple is demonstrated in recognizing the divine presence of Sri Guru wherever it is found, and bowing his head at the lotus feet of the agent through whom Divinity is so kindly revealing Himself.

The true chastity of the Vraja gopis was shown in their answering the flute call of Sri Krishna in the dead of night, although apparently abandoning their husbands to do so. So while some are sleeping in the bodily conception of Sri Guru, others are awakening to the inner dimension of his divine personality. His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj writes in Sri Guru and His Grace, “We must not identify our guru with the appearance we perceive with our physical senses. Our inner identification of Him will be clarified according to the growth of our vision. When our vision increases and takes shape from material to transcendental, His look will also change accordingly. Otherwise, what we see will be based on a material conception. And to force the material conception onto Divinity is a crime, it is ignorance, it is erroneous. We have to free ourselves from the snare of identifying reality with the physical form presented to our senses. By eliminating the external conception, we have to enter into the internal, and that will be all-important to a progressive disciple, if we want to go to the inner world of substance.”

In proportion to the depth and intensity of our inner hankering for a connection with Divinity, our conception of guru will expand. In separation from Sri Krishna the gopis began approaching even the trees and enquiring, “Where is Krishna?” Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur writes, “The reflected form of the lotus feet of Sri Guru in different receptacles constantly reveals many new matters for our instruction.” For those whose divine eye is awakened, they will find traces of Divinity everywhere and in everything.

CONTENTS

(1) The Appearance of Sri Gaurasundar
(2) Perfect Conclusions of the Scriptures
(3) Universal Conception of Guru
(4) Vaishnava Siddhanta: Serving the Vaishnavas
(5) Exploitation, Renunciation, Dedication
(6) Faith in the Absolute
(7) The Spiritual Master and the Disciple
(8) Saranagati
(9) The Central Importance of Sadhu-Sanga
(10) The Magnanimous Nature of Sri Nityananda Prabhu
(11) The Worship of Sri Murti
(12) The Significance of Mahaprasad

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